The instant invention relates to photo processing machines, and specifically to a photo processing machine which is designed for high quality commercial photographic processing of photographic material.
A number of rotary tube photographic processing machines are known. One such machine is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,695,162 to Wing, for DEVELOPING MACHINE FOR PHOTOGRAPHIC FILM, issued Oct. 3, 1972. Another known processor is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,035,818 to King, for COLOR PRINT OR FILM PROCESSOR. While the known machines are suitable for their intended purpose, the processing of modern photographic film and paper requires much finer temperature and time control for film and paper processing than is possible with the existing devices. As the number of film types increase, and developing times decrease, it is necessary to quickly introduce into, and expel processing solutions from, the container holding the sensitized photographic material which is being processed. Failure to switch processing solutions quickly will result in non-uniform density among, for instance, the several rolls of film being simultaneously processed in the processor.
Film, for instance, is usually processed by placing a roll of film onto a spiral metal reel and placing one or more reels into a container which is constructed to allow the entry of processing solutions thereunto. The container is held, in a horizontal manner, in an elongate trough and rotated while various processing solutions are introduced into the trough and expelled, or allowed to drain therefrom.